Freedom of the press has never exactly been guaranteed in Italy, but after a relatively calm few years it seems - alas - the situation is deteriorating once again. This Tuesday the journalist Roberto Saviano, best known as the author of Gomorrah, was forced to defend himself in court against accusations of “criminal defamation” on the part of Georgia Meloni, the current PM. Meloni’s case is based on remarks the author made during an interview on TV show PiazzaPulita in 2020, responding to her now-infamous calls for NGO refugee-rescue boats to be shot down and sunk. During the transmission, which featured a story of a six-month baby who had died at sea, the author - understandably - called Meloni and Salvini “bastards” for their lack of empathy while criticising their proposals for migration policy as “barbaric.” Saviano is a well-respected commentator who has been living under police protection for 15 years due to his work investigating the mafia. Nevertheless, the PM is still pushing for him to be prosecuted, and, if found guilty, he now faces a conviction of up to three years. This is, at best, laughable hypocrisy coming from the leader of a party that claims to despise ‘cancel culture.’ But it also reflects a deeper, worrying and systemic trend. In 2022 Italy dropped 17 places in the RWB Press Freedom Index to 58 (out of 180); by far, the worst score in Western Europe. With these figures in mind, Meloni’s beef with Saviano cannot be seen in isolation. Indeed, this seemingly trivial showdown is in fact the latest escalation in a veritable war on democracy conducted by organized crime, neo-fascist thugs and, increasingly, the state itself.
Last week the 63rd edition of the Festival Dei Popoli, Italy’s oldest documentary competition, took place in Florence’s La Compagnia cinema. It was a strong programme this year: and while I only had time to catch a couple of screenings I can vouch that the winners, Nikolaus Geyrhalter’s Matter Out Of Place, about waste-disposal, Ana Vaz’s It Is Night In America, a colonial allegory about nocturnal animals, and Mohammadreza Farzad’s, Subtotals, about memory and identity in Iran, are all worth your time and energy. Here, though, I want to draw readers’ attention to two entries in the ‘best Italian documentary’ category which I found particularly interesting. Both focus on jobs, work and the labour market. The first Il Posto - A Steady Job, by Mattia Colombo and Gianluca Matarrese, follows the plight of young, precarious nurses as they search for full-time contracts and basic job security against the challenges of both Covid-19 and the economic crisis. The second, E tu come stai?, by the Gori brothers, focuses on a different section of the working class - industrial employees with GKN in Florence - who, like so many tens of thousands across Europe, look set to lose their positions due to outsourcing. Two sets of actors, two struggles, the same dynamic of economic oppression. Together these films offer a powerful snapshot of the struggle for dignified employment in Italy today. Check out the trailers below.
Iperborea has just released its latest Italian essay collection as part of its series of travel-reportage books The Passenger. This instalment is dedicated to Milan, “the most elusive, indefinable city in Italy… a metropolis in flux which exerts a magnetism that extends far beyond the geographical limits of the urban area itself.” Dynamism and change are indeed the real subject of the book. Contributors include Paolo Cognetti, Lucia Tozzi and Nadeesha Uyangoda on topics including psycho-geography, urban gardens, migrant communities and micro-economies, and there is plenty too on art and culture, on instagram sculptures and the underground music scene, not to mention the failed Expo of 2015. As the editors summarise: “the skyline has been redesigned over the past two decades, and so too have entire neighborhoods. Factories have become co-working offices… The Milan of fog and panettone has disappeared. The age of Milan-boozing and Milan-TV has also passed, now replaced by fashionistas, designers, influencers and long weekends.” The book is out now in Italian, if you’re interested. Europa Editions will be publishing an English translation in early 2023.
Art and culture: exodus and resilience
Art Review published an interview with the sculptor Giulia Cenci a couple of weeks ago which I never got round to sharing, so here it is. Readers may have encountered Cenci’s work at this year’s Venice Biennale; the shocking spectacle of dead dance (2021–22) which was presented in the alleyways near the Arsenale. Here, the artist opens up about her daily life and in particular about a property she recently purchased in rural Tuscany where she hopes to build a “an intentional community” to “teach people how to be sovereign” while smelting scrap metals! I think her ethos is magnificent, from her “doomsday prepper” embrace of DIY to her punk-like romanticism and her philosophical-poetic sensitivity. In her own words: “We are overwhelmed by premade products, services and platforms which are telling us how to be, how to act, how our profile picture must be, or how incorrect our words or images can be. I believe that when you are isolated and able to do things yourself, you get a little bit of freedom, a kind of anarchy, which I think is quite necessary in these times.” If this even vaguely resonates, I highly recommend checking out the full interview as well as her Instagram where – misgivings about big tech aside – she is posting regular updates from her workshop.
From the country to the city: it seems that artists in Rome have also been using the ‘gap’ of Covid-19 to purchase and re-develop dilapidated spaces to transform them into individual and collective studios. Late last year, Damiana Leoni published a book called Vera which offers a map of 54 new project spaces which are “defying mass commercialization and precarity” by attempting to establish sustainable artistic communities. In this piece for Frieze the critic Ana Vukadin offers a quick overview of precisely how the pandemic catalysed this ongoing transformation by bringing “established art spaces – including Castro Projects (2018), Numero Cromatico and Spazio In Situ (2016) – whose longevity has been fuelled by clear identities and missions” together with new spaces like Spaziomensa and Ombrelloni to form a single ecosystem. The success of this venture is by no means a given. Making art in Rome is notoriously tricky. Leaving aside inflation and rising energy bills, the market is slow, the art public notoriously fragmented and, while the creative community is vibrant, it remains atomised. Something, though, is undeniably stirring - and Vukadin’s piece offers an important vindication of these artists’ ambition and resilience in challenging circumstances. Read it here and make some notes for your address book.

Recipe the week: slow-cooked squid in tomato sauce (with olio nuovo)
Trust me, and trust yourself, this delicious recipe is as simple as you could ever wish for, and it requires nothing, and I mean nothing to truly sing. Don’t even think about adding capers or chili here. Nothing. This is a tried-and-tested canonical technique for cooking squid in Italy which is particularly popular on the Tyrrhenian coastline between Livorno and Naples. This is home-cooking; nothing fancy. It’s the sort of dish you might pick up at a cheap trattoria round a fish market for 7-8 euros. A genius combination of flavours, to be consumed without fanfare. Just proceed as follows: sauté some onion and garlic, add tomatoes and a splash of wine, a dash of parsley then the squid, cut into rings. Slow cook, about 40-50 minutes, until soft not rubbery. Drench with copious quantities of green, grassy olive oil – the best quality you can find – and serve this piping hot as a dish in its own right with some slices of toasted bread. Here’s a rare ENG recipe from the NYT if you need further guidelines [though make sure to use parsley, not thyme, for an authentic final result].
About Me
My name is Jamie Mackay (@JacMackay) and I’m an author, editor and translator based in Florence. I’ve been writing about Italy for a decade for international media including The Guardian, The Economist, Frieze, and Art Review. I launched ‘The Week in Italy’ to share a more direct and regular overview of the debates and dilemmas, innovations and crises that sometimes pass under the radar of our overcrowded news feeds.
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